-il CesareSole Absolute Triple
Exalted High Tastemaster Supreme
“In the entire world there are only a few sounds that bring joy to all but the most jaded. One is the murmur of a kitten purring. Another is the thwack of a well-pitched baseball hitting a perfectly swung bat. And the third is the pop of a cork being pulled from a bottle of wine.” —George Taber

cyclebex

Just speculating on how Cesare always gets the first post with all the great information. I read somewhere that he is not a Woot employee, so Cesare is obviously an old man with Sundowners syndrome.Just look at that mug shot, it is totally fake!Maybe I am mistaken, and he is a Wootbot and that technically makes him "employed" by Woot. Maybe he is a stay at home mom with insomnia? He could be a paid Shill who works for every winery known to man. And this is his job man! Or perhaps he is just a vampire. IDK what do you guys think?

joshsting

rjquillin

Winery price $30
"Winemaking: We picked the Heintz Chardonnay on October 7. The fruit was destemmed and pressed to barrel where it underwent a native fermentation beginning at 23.5 Brix. The wine was aged in French oak 30% was aged in a new French oak 500 Liter puncheon.. For the first half year the wine was stirred bimonthly. The wine had a slow and steady secondary fermentation. We bottled August 1"

cortot20

cyclebex wrote:Just speculating on how Cesare always gets the first post with all the great information. I read somewhere that he is not a Woot employee, so Cesare is obviously an old man with Sundowners syndrome.Just look at that mug shot, it is totally fake!Maybe I am mistaken, and he is a Wootbot and that technically makes him "employed" by Woot. Maybe he is a stay at home mom with insomnia? He could be a paid Shill who works for every winery known to man. And this is his job man! Or perhaps he is just a vampire. IDK what do you guys think?

He works for wikipedia and just cant get enough posting things that link to other things so he does this on the side. Not theory, fact!

lukebass

The Heintz Vineyard is famous for aging very well. I just decanted a bottle and after two hours it was opening up and tasting great this is an indicator that it has structure to age. If one has the patience I think three to five years would be a safe cellar time.

Kao1138

cyclebex wrote:Just speculating on how Cesare always gets the first post with all the great information. I read somewhere that he is not a Woot employee, so Cesare is obviously an old man with Sundowners syndrome.Just look at that mug shot, it is totally fake!Maybe I am mistaken, and he is a Wootbot and that technically makes him "employed" by Woot. Maybe he is a stay at home mom with insomnia? He could be a paid Shill who works for every winery known to man. And this is his job man! Or perhaps he is just a vampire. IDK what do you guys think?

He is in fact human. The fact that he always gets the first post and is often mistaken for a bot comes up at pretty much every gathering that he's at.

joshsting

lukebass wrote:The Heintz Vineyard is famous for aging very well. I just decanted a bottle and after two hours it was opening up and tasting great this is an indicator that it has structure to age. If one has the patience I think three to five years would be a safe cellar time.

texacaliali

(POLARBEAR22 is stuck on the Cape without a connection, so he sent this on Sunday to post today)

Here goes.

2008 Porter-Bass Chardonnay

The labrat e-mail recommended that I decant this wine. Since periodically, I can follow good advice. I did decant the wine. However, sticking with advice is not my strong suit, so I immediately poured some into a glass. They were right, this needs to be decanted. The small amount in the glass was acceptable after 30 minutes or so, but we let the remainder decant for an hour.

The wine is a deep golden color in the glass. Deeper than most wines I have had recently.
On the nose, there is a clear mineral note. There is just a subtle fruit note that seems tropical, and possibly some apple.

The wine has a big mouthfeel, lots of viscosity. Moderate oak. I expected there to be strong buttery flavors with the big mouthfeel, but the butter is barely there. This Chardonnay is more tart and mineral, with a little lemon. It is creamy with nice acidity.

The finish is moderate to long, with nice acidity and tartness.

We drank the wine over two hours. It remained with the large mouthfeel and creaminess. It got a little less tart, but the nice acidity remained.

My wife described this wine as having what she likes in a Sauvignon Blanc – crisp and tart – but with more body and richness.

We had this with chicken soup made with leftover roast chicken. It would have been better with the chicken the first time. By the time anyone reads this, we will be having fresh oysters on Cape Cod. I wish that we could match this wine with the oysters. I think they would have gone well together.

So on to some research. The winery website was down this weekend. I hope they are up for the offer. This wine was stirred on the lees, which is what brings out the creamy mouthfeel. The light oak and lack of MLF makes this wine more Burgundian in style. I won’t go further and try to peg it to a region in Burgundy, as by this time the wine is gone.

I did find a note that this started at 22.5 Brix.

This is unlike most of the CA Chardonnays that I have had recently. Not a fan of the buttery Chards for most occasions. I prefer the crisp, unoaked Chardonnays. The big mouthfeel made this different, yet it was crisp and creamy without being buttery. We really liked this, and plan to purchase a set. SWIBM be damned.

beefytaco

I was incredibly excited to see this bottle in our package - while I am not very familiar with Porter Bass as a winery, all of the Sonoma superstars make a Heintz Vineyard chardonnay and I had high expectations.

As advised by the labrat email, we decanted - and the wine sings with air. Give it an hour or two, and to further overuse a meaningless phrase, you have a wine that tastes very 'Burgundian.'

polarbear22

cyclebex wrote:Just speculating on how Cesare always gets the first post with all the great information. I read somewhere that he is not a Woot employee, so Cesare is obviously an old man with Sundowners syndrome.Just look at that mug shot, it is totally fake!Maybe I am mistaken, and he is a Wootbot and that technically makes him "employed" by Woot. Maybe he is a stay at home mom with insomnia? He could be a paid Shill who works for every winery known to man. And this is his job man! Or perhaps he is just a vampire. IDK what do you guys think?

Cesare is real, walks and talks. I think he is speculating that woot TRICK OR TREAT!'s will one day be the currency of the land. And he will have cornered the market. Must be the Italian in him.

inkycatz

cyclebex wrote:Just speculating on how Cesare always gets the first post with all the great information. I read somewhere that he is not a Woot employee, so Cesare is obviously an old man with Sundowners syndrome.Just look at that mug shot, it is totally fake!Maybe I am mistaken, and he is a Wootbot and that technically makes him "employed" by Woot. Maybe he is a stay at home mom with insomnia? He could be a paid Shill who works for every winery known to man. And this is his job man! Or perhaps he is just a vampire. IDK what do you guys think?

I think if it bugs you this much then maybe you can try to beat him to the punch sometime or find your own "quality post" contributing niche. ;)

Woody1

I'm still po'd. Sent woot a couple emails from the write us page and no reply. Not characteristic of woot at all. PM'd WD as he asked, no reply....Is woot on Holiday? This is worse than SmartPost shipping.

Even Amazon can't muck this up this bad.

Anticipated ship date is still Sep 23, 2011 and nothing but on 9/18/2011, I successfully wooted and paid though. (barely remember what for)

warrenhret

Love reading the posts each day... actually look forward to it. Never have much to add. Really don't now either, other than this wine is as incredible as the Rats have indicated. Not a chard drinker at all, the butter is a big turn off. As others have said, if butter is what you're after you best be heading east.

This has slight oak, a little mineral. I have had this wine with oysters and the pairing is wonderful (and I've never decanted).

When I saw this pop up, I couldn't believe it. Great wine by an even greater fella, enjoy!

lukebass

The storm has passed after giving us an inch and a half of rain. Now if it dries out for a couple of days we will be able to get back into the vineyard to pick fruit. Since Littorai has come up a couple of times we sell Littorai Pinot and Chardonnay grapes which they bottle as Mays Canyon.

lukebass

I have been working with the Heintz Vineyard fruit for years and have always loved the unique balance of stone fruits, earth and richness. Due to the coolness of the site there is great acidity that keeps the palate fresh and the finish clean. It is a bold wine but with every passing month you can see the flavors knitting together becoming more delicate and balanced. In a few years this wine will be fantastic and at this price a great deal.

texacaliali

lukebass wrote:I have been working with the Heintz Vineyard fruit for years and have always loved the unique balance of stone fruits, earth and richness. Due to the coolness of the site there is great acidity that keeps the palate fresh and the finish clean. It is a bold wine but with every passing month you can see the flavors knitting together becoming more delicate and balanced. In a few years this wine will be fantastic and at this price a great deal.

lukebass

We are currently making on average about 1,000 cases total production. We make an Estate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. The only off site grapes we have used are the Heintz Chardonnay. I am always looking for exciting vineyards to work with but I want organic grapes, grown in cool climate regions on interesting land which has been hard to find.

lukebass

I have been in contact with my website host and they see no problems. What program are you using ? our website is www.porterbass.com in case you had an incorrect address or link. Sorry I can't be of greater help. We use firefox and have had no problems

fuzzy103

lukebass wrote:I have been in contact with my website host and they see no problems. What program are you using ? our website is www.porterbass.com in case you had an incorrect address or link. Sorry I can't be of greater help. We use firefox and have had no problems

kylemittskus

G*$ D@#$&%!!!!! I just typed my entire report and then lost it. Anyway, as I was saying...

First of all, allow me to apologize. I was supposed to rat for the sake, but didn't get the package until today due to confusion (on my parents' part) as to what the FedEx guy tried to deliver. They thought it was their wine club shipment. It wasn't. I hate absent rats and I became one. Please forgive me.

Second of all, due to the heat we've had in So Cal this past week (except now it's raining), this wine is cooked. My report isn't going to be worth much because of that. I can get nothing from the bouquet besides cooked, bad smell, and the palate is more of the same. However, I can tell you that this wine has two things that I can discern even though it's cooked. The first is that the mouthfeel is fantastic! Creamy and rich, maybe even slightly viscous. The other is that this wine has a strong, acidic backbone. Oysters, white fish, scallops, ankimo, I want them all with a bottle of this and I'm set. Again, I have no perception on the wine's actual flavor profile, but the acidity along with the creamy rich mouthfeel leads me to come to the following conclusion:

If you're dropping $25-$50 and up on White Burgundy (I have been), this is easy @ $21/bottle, IMHO. Other rats whom I trust (Polar Bear) say this has minerality. If they say so, I believe it. Add that to the mouthfeel and the acidity that I can perceive, this is an EASY buy at $21. Yes, I know it's $21. But look at Burg prices.... did you look? Good. EASY. This is some serious juice. And if I can tell that without any flavors, I'm impressed.

For reference, I have no problem blasting a wine that I am given to rat (I've done it before). I tend towards bigger wines. I like more fruit than earth, but want both. Favorite varietal is PS. Favorite white is Roussanne. Favorite region is the Rhone. Favorite color is orange. Oh, that's not necessary. Sorry. In m whites I like big mouthfeel, acid, and these days in my Chards, some butter, vanilla, etc.

I don't know how much help I'll be able to be with my cooked bottle, but I'm around all the time (the experts call me "addicted") so if you want any clarifications, just post.

Thanks WD, as always. Sorry I screwed up with the Sake, but I think we're even since my bottle is cooked.

"If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine." -Rainer Maria Rilke

"Champagne is a very kind and friendly thing on a rainy night." -Isak Dinesen

polarbear22

lukebass wrote:I have been in contact with my website host and they see no problems. What program are you using ? our website is www.porterbass.com in case you had an incorrect address or link. Sorry I can't be of greater help. We use firefox and have had no problems

I use IE on my laptop and whatever browser came with the HP Touchpad. Not st home so only the Touchpad and it isn't working. I can get s mobile site on my iPhone. Not sure if I tried the phone thus weekend.

I see a preview site with Google but can't load it.

Wish I had thus wine here. Every town seems to have their own oysters. And I see them for a $1 each in many places. I think I should just drop $20 and eat up.

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